Sept. 1, 1902.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
191 
THE PEARL FISBERIES OF CEYLON: 
PROFESSOR HERDMAN'S REPORT : 
GOOD PROSPECT OP CONTINUOUS 
FISHERIES IF SCIENTIFICALLY 
TREATED : 
TWO DANGERS TO AVOID :— " OVER- 
CROVv^DING " AND " OVERFISHING." 
No act of Governor Sir West Riilgevvay 
is more likely to be fruitful in material 
.idvantage to tliis Colony, than the selection 
of Professor Herdman, p.r.s., to inspect 
and report on its Pearl oysters and Fisheries. 
We had in 1896 seen something of Dr. 
Herdman's work in the Isle cf Man where 
ho had established a Marine Laboratory 
which was an object of much interest to 
the Zoological section of the British Asso- 
ciation meeting that year in Liverpool — 
one that included a special scientific excursion 
to the neighbouring island which Sir West 
had administered until 1895 when he left 
for Ceylon. We felt sure the right man 
was coming to deal with the problem of 
our Pearl Fisheries as soon as we he.ard 
of Dr. Herdman's appointment. The result, 
to judge by the Report, which we issued 
as a special supplement last evening, more 
than justifies the most sanguine expecta- 
tions. Indeed, the regret must now be 
that Professor Herdman was not called in 
ten years earlier. But the fact was that 
"science" had got discredited, both in 
official and unofficial circles in Ceylon, ever 
since the failure of Mr. Holdsworth's 
mission in the time of Sir Hercules 
Robinson. That energetic Governor, when 
he found that— instead of four or five 
successive annual fisheries beginning with 
1863 as anticipated by the then In- 
spector (and Collector of Customs), the Hon. 
Geo. Vane— there were no oysters available 
after the first harvest (which yielded R510,000 
of revenue), resolved to call in the aid 
of science to see what could be done. Mr. 
Holdsworth, a Fellow of the Zoological 
Society of some experience in connection 
with home fisheries, was selected, but he met 
with most unfortunate circumstances during 
his few years in (Jeylon ; for not only did 
he never see a fishery but there was no 
bank covered with young oysters for him 
to examine or experiment with. From 1863 
to 1873 proved a complete blank in our 
Pearl Oyster annals and Mr. Holdsworth 
left us none the wiser, so far as any prac- 
tical result was concerned, though his Reports 
in tiieniselves afforded in their way in, 
teresting reading. Very different is Pro- 
fessor Herdman's experience. He came to 
us not immediately after a successful fishery 
(such as occurred in 1891, giving R963,749 
of revenue) but at the close of another 
decade of blanks and just when our historic 
Banks had once again become covered with 
enormous deposits of oysters, estimated for 
one bank alone at over a hundred tliousand 
million ! And not only young oysters ; but 
\n the case of one or two Banks a great 
many of an age that all past experience 
shows should be fished "next year," lest they 
may slip away or be lost— from one or other 
of the several causes which have disappointed 
our hopes in the past. In his Report 
Professor Herdman does not enter into the 
history or causes of past failures.— For the 
present at least, he wisely leaves alone a 
discussion of the reasons for the periodic 
succession of a series of years with 
fisheries alternating with a series of blanks 
On that subject he may possibly enter 
later on. But while going at once to the 
work before him, and giving us the re- 
sults of his observations and scientific 
knowledge, he indicates two dangers ap- 
parent to the biologist in connection with 
such Fisheries, which may very likely in- 
dicate the key to much that is mysterious 
in the past, — namely the dangers of over- 
croivding and overjiahinrj . The former 
especially is very evident at the present 
time (as it was to Sir William Twynam and 
Captain Donnan in 1862, in 1879 and in 
1889) ; but — for the first time, we believe, in 
the whole history of Ceylon Pearl Fish- 
eries—is a practical remedy proposed, namely 
that of thinning out and trayisplanting the 
young oysters. This, Professor Herdman 
assures us, can be easily and speedily done 
on a large scale by dredging from a 
steamer at the proper time of year, whea 
the young oysters are at the best age for 
transplanting. Here is the one specially 
valuable result, so far, of Professor Herd- 
man's Mission ; and if he and his 
Scientific Assistant, Mr. Hornell, are en- 
abled to carry out successfully the remedy 
herein proposed, we say they will most 
amply justify Governor Ridge way's stap 
in securing their appointment and be the 
me.ms of conferring an immense advantage 
on the island by turning its Pearl Oyster 
Fisheries from an entirely uncertain, inter- 
mittent source, to a comparatively perma- 
nent source of revenue. Of the other work, 
of the two scient'sts, we need only notice 
tUe selection of Galle Harbour as the site 
of a Marine Biological Laboratory, and here 
the necessary experiments are now being 
carried on by Mr. Hornell, which are to 
determine the best size of oyster to trans- 
plant, the right season of the year (October 
or March) for the operation, and whether 
only oysters attached to movable objects 
can be depended on, or whether the lyssus, 
once dredged or torn away, can be replaced 
without injury to the oyster. 
We must not, of course, be too sanguine 
as to the future. The warnings of the past, 
ever since Sir Henry Ward's day, are 
sufficient to teach caution. We must first 
see actual transplanting on a considerable 
ecale successfully carried out, and still more 
a successful fishery from the bank so 
planted, as well as a proper harvest gathered 
from the bank relieved of the superfluous 
bivalves. In all this there will be a risk ; 
but Professor Herdman's modest, albeit clear 
and practical, statements inspire confidence, 
and we hail his Report as both extremely 
satisfactory and encouraging to the Govern- 
ment and public of this Colony. 
